December 7, 2011 – 5:55 pm
President Obama gave a rousing speech for his base yesterday in Osawatomie, Kansas: a collectivist stem-winder in which he invoked the rough-riding spirit of Teddy Roosevelt to call for more leveling, more government regulation of everything, and more central planning — in general, more “tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro […]
December 7, 2011 – 11:05 am
Christopher Hitchens has suffered the torments of the damned in the past eighteen months, and in this harrowing essay at Vanity Fair, he reflects skeptically on Nietzsche’s oft-repeated claim that “Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stÁ¤rker“. What has not yet killed him, as he makes very clear indeed, has made him no stronger at […]
December 6, 2011 – 11:30 am
Following on our recent post about race and intelligence: one question that often comes up is where brain size fits in. Brain size does seem to vary among human populations in the same way that the distribution of intelligence does — with East Asians, for example, having bigger brains on average than whites — so […]
December 5, 2011 – 11:23 pm
Mulla Nasrudin was carrying home some liver which he had just bought. In the other hand he had a recipe for liver pie which a friend had given him. Suddenly a buzzard swooped down and carried off the liver. “You fool!” shouted Nasrudin, “the meat is all very well — but I still have the […]
December 4, 2011 – 9:47 pm
Not really rising at all, according to sea-level expert Nils-Axel Mörner, who actually goes and measures it, all over the globe. David Duff has brought to our attention to a new article by Dr. Mörner in the Spectator, in which we read (my emphasis): It has now become traditional for climate change summits to open […]
December 3, 2011 – 5:08 pm
Pure insanity in deep-blue Boston: First-grader accused of sexual harassment A Boston elementary school is investigating a 7-year-old first-grader for sexual harassment after he struck another boy his age in the groin. But the mother of the accused said her son was fending off the other child, who had choked him in an altercation on […]
December 3, 2011 – 2:30 pm
The merry Christmas season is upon us once again, so in a joyous Yuletide spirit, let’s put aside all this partisan bickering and enjoy a little light-hearted holiday cheer. Why, I’ve got just the thing.
December 3, 2011 – 1:40 pm
The wall of ideological taboo around frank discussion of race and intelligence is beginning to crack. So far we’re used to hearing about it mostly from beyond-the-pale HBD bloggers, or rare damn-the-torpedoes authors like Charles Murray — but truth, when buried, has a way of patiently seeking daylight. (Or, as Churchill put it, “you must […]
December 2, 2011 – 2:24 pm
Hot on the heels of Climategate II, Walter Russell Meade brings to our attention a peer-reviewed paper from the latest Science that calls into question “settled” wisdom about the sensitivity of global temperature to increases in atmospheric CO2. Here. Traffic’s up around here lately, and this might be a good moment to reiterate our position […]
December 1, 2011 – 11:27 am
In the latest NightWatch, John McCreary makes some important points about recent developments in Iran, and about the West’s policy of economic sanctions: Iran: Comment: Several reputable analysts have suggested that the attacks against the British Embassy are symptoms of a fundamental political struggle in the Iranian leadership elite. The argument is not new, but […]
December 1, 2011 – 10:20 am
Here’s some common sense from Thomas Sowell, in the context of an essay about Newt Gingrich’s position on immigration: Let’s go back to square one. The purpose of American immigration laws and policies is not to be either humane or inhumane to illegal immigrants. The purpose of immigration laws and policies is to serve the […]
December 1, 2011 – 12:04 am
Here’s a stunning development, a real shocker: Early Results in Egypt Show a Mandate for Islamists Seems to me there was somebody who saw this coming almost a year ago, even before the Times started writing things like “We can think of no better rebuttal to Osama bin Laden and other extremists.” Back around January […]
November 30, 2011 – 11:47 pm
Interesting item over at Jeffery Hodges’ place: Jeff comments on an interview with the prominent Egyptian Protestant Ramez Atallah. Atallah talks about the unique centrality of Islam in Arabic-speaking lands. He also has this to say about Western indignation over the ubiquitous persecution of Christians in Muslim territory: I need you to please understand that […]
November 30, 2011 – 11:25 pm
This from the Telegraph: Olympic swimming records set to tumble at London 2012 as Speedo unveil Fastskin3 swimwear system I realize I’m just an old fossil, but this is a depressing trend. Next it’ll be quantum-tunneling suits, or something. I think the ancient Greeks had the right idea: make ’em compete in the nude. It’d […]
November 29, 2011 – 9:28 pm
Bonneville Salt Flats, 462 m.p.h. Here.
November 29, 2011 – 9:12 pm
As you already know, the Congressional deficit-reduction “supercommittee” failed to find a paltry $1.2 trillion dollars worth of trimmable fat in the Federal budget over the next ten years. Given that you could confiscate all corporate profits each year in America and still only cover six months of government spending, we’re obviously living way, way […]
November 28, 2011 – 8:59 pm
There’s been another wave of leaked “Climategate” emails, if you’re interested in this sort of thing. Jim Lacey discusses them over at NRO, and Alana Goodman does the same at Commentary. See also this searchable database — and this item too, over at Duff and Nonsense.
November 28, 2011 – 5:19 pm
I stopped by Wellfleet Harbor shortly before sunset today to take in the view. Here’s the scene, looking southwest from the seawall at Kendrick Avenue (forgive the poor quality – I took these shots with the camera in my phone, which has a blurry lens): Wait a minute — what the hell is that thing […]
November 27, 2011 – 4:36 pm
Here’s one that I missed on Tuesday (and thanks to our friend Peter for mentioning it) — Paul Motian, a jazz drummer of sublime artistry and one of the most versatile and influential players of all time, died last week at the age of 80. (The cause was myelodysplastic syndrome, the same affliction that took […]
November 26, 2011 – 5:06 pm
Tom Wicker, one of the leading journalists of his era, has died at 85. His New York Times obituary is here. Wicker was with JFK in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963, and filed his report from a pay phone on the evening of that awful day. You can read it here.
November 25, 2011 – 10:54 pm
We’ve been on the road all day, so nothing substantial here tonight — just a few brief items. First: yesterday’s Thanksgiving prep presented a good example of why punctuation matters, with particular regard to the hyphenation of compound adjectives. When you string together a pair of adjectives so that the first modifies the second, as […]
November 24, 2011 – 2:20 pm
To each and every one of you. Among the many blessings I am grateful for today is having you all as readers and correspondents. I’m too busy cooking to write an extended meditation, but for a perfect Thanksgiving homily it would be hard to do better than the one Dr. William Vallicella posts every year. […]
November 23, 2011 – 7:20 pm
For centuries, Sikhs have been the warriors of choice for elite fighting units throughout South Asia. And here’s why.
November 23, 2011 – 4:49 pm
Matt Yglesias comments at Slate on the three realistic prospects for the Eurozone: disintegration, German domination, or… actual democracy. As Mr. Yglesias points out, creating a unified, pan-European democratic republic would be a very “tall order”. As for German domination, my memory’s not as good as it once was, but it does seem to me […]
November 23, 2011 – 12:31 pm
A recent article in the Times took a look at Google X, Google’s hush-hush advanced-projects lab. It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. Your robot could go to the […]
November 21, 2011 – 11:19 pm
Here’s something odd I just read in a tooltip at XKCD: Wikipedia trivia: if you take any article, click on the first link in the article text not in parentheses or italics, and then repeat, you will eventually end up at “Philosophy”. I’ve spent the past fifteen minutes trying it. So far, it’s worked every […]
November 21, 2011 – 10:35 pm
Here’s an unusual image, courtesy of Wish I Didn’t Know:
November 21, 2011 – 7:46 pm
Here’s an almost unbearably poignant tale of the Japanese tsunami.
November 21, 2011 – 6:24 pm
Here’s one that’s been making the rounds: it’s an Op-Ed from yesterday’s Times making a point that in a less Orwellian world would come as no surprise to anyone, namely that innate qualities make a significant difference in the statistical distribution of life outcomes. We read: Exhibit A is a landmark study of intellectually precocious […]
November 21, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Here’s a summary of the prospects for the Obamacare case coming up at SCOTUS. This one’s a biggie: it’s the last line of defense for those who believe that the idea of “enumerated powers” has any meaning at all.
November 20, 2011 – 7:08 pm
Well, it looks as if the deficit-reduction “supercommittee” is about to fail. Political analyst Larry Sabato tweeted: Could it really be that 12 able legislators will fail utterly at the most important task they’ll ever be asked to do? Yeah, I’m sure he’s shocked, along with the rest of us. U.S. government spending is an […]
November 20, 2011 – 6:36 pm
This from VOA: Grenades Hit Syria’s Baath Party Building in Damascus Syrian activists say several rocket-propelled grenades hit a ruling Baath Party building in Damascus Sunday, as President Bashar al-Assad vowed he will not “bow down” to international pressure to ease his brutal crackdown on dissent. The Local Coordination Committees activist network and several residents […]
November 18, 2011 – 11:03 pm
Here’s a dark item by Victor Hanson on the supple reality inhabited by our chief executive.
November 18, 2011 – 12:07 am
More Shatner! This time a cautionary tale, and a timely one, too. Can you believe this guy’s 80 years old?
November 17, 2011 – 10:59 pm
As we grow more and more dependent on interactive electronic media, we’re also giving away more and more information about everything we say and do. We don’t seem to mind much, given that we’ve blithely been making this tradeoff en masse for some time now, but the latest generation of smartphones have upped the ante […]
November 17, 2011 – 10:42 pm
In the discussion we linked to yesterday (well worth your time, by the way, if you are interested in matters military and strategic), George Friedman argued that although China has made a Great Leap Forward beyond anything Mao could have imagined, it is now reaching a point of economic fatigue, if not exhaustion. In particular, […]
November 16, 2011 – 10:24 pm
For you strategic-security wonks, here’s a meaty item: an in-depth discussion between foreign-policy expert Robert Kaplan and STRATFOR’s George Friedman on the changing balance of sea power between the U.S. and China.
November 16, 2011 – 8:10 pm
I don’t usually go in much for “tappers”, but this is pretty cool. HT: Devin Townsend.
November 14, 2011 – 6:12 pm
It was an unusually mild November day here in the Outer Cape, and I went for a walk in Wellfleet’s Fox Island Marsh & Pilgrim Spring Woodlands Conservation Area, which I’d never explored. While it’s hardly the Bridger Wilderness, the conservation area offers a lovely trail through pine forests down to the salt marshes at […]
November 13, 2011 – 1:36 pm
There’s a good piece by Katie Roiphe on “sexual harassment” in today’s Times. Money quote: The creativity and resourcefulness of the definitions, the broadness and rigor of the rules and codes, have always betrayed their more Orwellian purpose… Also: Codes of sexual harassment imagine an entirely symmetrical universe, where people are never outrageous, rude, awkward, […]
November 12, 2011 – 1:26 pm
One melodic voice in the complex polyphony of the “OWS” uprising is the lament of the young college grads who, despite their hard-earned degrees in important fields of study, today find themselves laden with scholastic debt and unable to descry a clear path to prosperity. It’s terribly unfair: they’ve done what they were supposed to […]
November 11, 2011 – 9:18 pm
Longtime readers will know that I am something of a chauvinist as regards Western civilization, ever-ready to mount the ramparts for the sake of its defense and preservation. Every now and then, though, I think it’s important to remind ourselves just why this incomparable edifice is so worthy of our devotion and sacrifice — and […]
November 10, 2011 – 4:28 pm
Here’s a tart item by Charles Murray about the prevalence of certain groups in educational “gifted” programs, and the willfully blinkered obstinacy of media commentators thereupon. One quibble. In response to a journalist’s claim that “most gifted programs explicitly target students with natural talents and aptitude, which are spread evenly across racial groups and social […]
November 10, 2011 – 3:21 pm
Busy today, so just a brief item. Leg-Hair Font.
November 9, 2011 – 8:47 pm
Further thoughts on OWS from Victor Hanson, here.
November 9, 2011 – 12:06 pm
…15¢ to pay for “a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees”. Story here. (Or maybe here.) (HT: Drudge.) — Update! No doubt due to the uproar generated by this post, the administration is now reconsidering.
November 8, 2011 – 10:16 pm
What’s at the root of the deepening crisis in the European Union? George Friedman of STRATFOR attributes it to persistent nationalism, and in recent weeks has written a pair of substantial posts articulating this view. The first, The Crisis of Europe and European Nationalism, was published on September 13th. We read (boldface emphasis added by […]
November 8, 2011 – 7:52 pm
Here’s an entertaining item by “David Kahane”: The Cold Civil War.